A Strange Disappearance by Anna Katharine Green

Its easy to link to paragraphs in the Full Text ArchiveIf this page contains some material that you want to link to but you don't want your visitors to have to scroll down the whole page just hover your mouse over the relevent paragraph and click the bookmark icon that appears to the left of it. The address of that paragraph will appear in the address bar of your browser. For further details about how you can link to the Full Text Archive please refer to our linking page.

far as to believe that her eyes would yet flash upon me from beneathsome of the tattered shawls I saw sullying the forms of the younggirls upon which I hourly stumbled. Yes, and even made a move tosee my cousin, if haply I could so win upon her compassion as to gainher consent to shelter the poor creature of my dreams in case thenecessity came. But my heart failed me at the sight of her cold faceabove the splendor she had bought with her charms, and I was saved ahumiliation I might never have risen above.

"At last, one day I saw a girl--no, it was not she, but her hair wassimilar to hers in hue, and the impulse to follow her wasirresistible. I did more than that, I spoke to her. I asked her if shecould tell me anything of one whose locks were golden red likehers--But I need not tell you what I said nor what she replied with agentle delicacy that was almost a shock to me as showing from whatheights to what depths a woman can fall. Enough that nothing passedbetween us beyond what I have intimated, and that in all she said shegave me no news of Luttra.

"Next day I started for the rambling old house in Vermont, if haply inthe spot where I first saw her, I might come upon some clue to herpresent whereabouts. But the old inn was deserted, and whatever hopeI may have had in that direction, perished with the rest.

"Concerning the contents of that bureau-drawer above, I can saynothing. If, as I scarcely dare to hope, they should prove to havebeen indeed brought here by the girl who has since disappeared sostrangely, who knows but what in those folded garments a clue is givenwhich will lead me at last to the knowledge for which I would nowbarter all I possess. My wife--But I can mention her name no more tillthe question that now assails us is set at rest. Mrs. Daniels must--"

But at that moment the door opened and Mrs. Daniels came in.

CHAPTER XIV

MRS. DANIELS

She still wore her bonnet and shawl and her face was like marble.

"You want me?" said she with a hurried look towards Mr. Blake that hadas much fear as surprise in it.

"Yes," murmured that gentleman moving towards her with an effort wecould very well appreciate. "Mrs. Daniels, who was the girl youharbored in that room above us for so long? Speak; what was her nameand where did she come from?"

The housekeeper trembling in every limb, cast us one hurried appeal.

"Speak!" reechoed Mr. Gryce; "the time for secrecy has passed."

"O," cried she, sinking into a chair from sheer inability to stand,"it was your wife, Mr. Blake, the young creature you--"

"Ah!"

All the agony, the hopelessness, the love, the passion of those lastfew months flashed up in that word. She stopped as if she had beenshot, but seeing the hand which he had hurriedly raised, fall slowlybefore him, went on with a burst,

"O sir, she made me swear on my knees I would never betray her, nomatter what happened. When not two weeks after your father died shecame to the house and asking for me, told me all her story and allher love; how she could not reconcile it with her idea of a wife'sduty to live under any other roof than that of her husband, andlifting off the black wig which she wore, showed me how altered shehad made herself by that simple change--in her case more marked bythe fact that her eyes were in keeping with black hair, while withher own bright locks they always gave you a shock as of somethingstrange and haunting--I gave up my will as if forced by a magneticpower, and not only opened the house to her but my heart as well;swearing to all she demanded and keeping my oath too, as I wouldpreserve my soul from sin and my life from the knife of thedestroyer."

"But, when she went," broke from the pallid lips of the man beforeher, "when she was taken away from the house, what then?"

"Ah," returned the agitated woman. "what then! Do you not think Isuffered? To be held by my oath, an oath I was satisfied she wouldwish kept even at this crisis, yet knowing all the while she wasdrifting away into some evil that you, if you knew who she was, wouldgive your life to avert from your honor if not from her innocenthead! To see you cold, indifferent, absorbed in other things, whileshe, who would have perished any day for your happiness, was losingher life perhaps in the clutches of those horrible villains! Do notask me to tell you what I have suffered since she went; I can nevertell you,-- innocent, tender, noble-hearted creature that she was."

"Was?" His hand clutched his heart as if it had been seized by adeathly spasm. "Why do you say was?"

"Because I have just come from the Morgue where she lies dead."

"No, no," came in a low shriek from his lips, "that is not she; thatis another woman, like her perhaps, but not she."

"Would to God you were right; but the long golden braids! Such hair ashers I never saw on anyone before."

"Mr. Blake is right," I broke in, for I could not endure this sceneany longer. "The woman taken out of the East river to-day has beenboth seen and spoken to by him and that not long since. He shouldknow if it is his wife."

"And isn't it?"

"No, a thousand times no; the girl was a perfect stranger."

The assurance seemed to lift a leaden weight from her heart. "O thankGod," she murmured dropping with an irresistible impulse on herknees. Then with a sudden return of her old tremble, "But I was onlyto reveal her secret in case of her death! What have I done, O whathave I done! Her only hope lay in my faithfulness."

Mr. Blake leaning heavily on the table before him, looked in her face.

"Mrs. Daniels," said he, "I love my wife; her hope now lies in me."

She leaped to her feet with a joyous bound. "You love her? O thankGod!" she again reiterated but this time in a low murmur to her self."Thank God!" and weeping with unrestrained joy, she drew back into acorner.

Of course after that, all that remained for us to do was to lay ourheads together and consult as to the best method of renewing oursearch after the unhappy girl, now rendered of double interest to usby the facts with which we had just been made acquainted. That shehad been forced away from the roof that sheltered her by the power ofher father and brother was of course no longer open to doubt. Todiscover them, therefore, meant to recover her. Do you wonder, then,that from the moment we left Mr. Blake's house, the capture of thatbrace of thieves became the leading purpose of our two lives?

CHAPTER XV

A CONFAB

Next morning Mr. Gryce and I met in serious consultation. How, and inwhat direction should we extend the inquiries necessary to adiscovery of these Schoenmakers?

"I advise a thorough overhauling of the German quarter," said mysuperior. "Schmidt, and Rosenthal will help us and the result ought tobe satisfactory."

But I shook my head at this. "I don't believe," said I, "that theywill hide among their own people. You must remember they are notalone, but have with them a young woman of a somewhat distinguishedappearance, whose presence in a crowded district, like that, would besure to awaken gossip; something which above all else they must wantto avoid."

"That is true; the Germans are a dreadful race for gossip."

"If they dared to ill-dress her or ill-treat her, it would bedifferent. But she is a valuable piece of property to them you see, achoice lot of goods which it is for their interest to preserve infirst-class condition till the day comes for its disposal. For Ipresume you have no doubt that it is for the purpose of extortingmoney from Mr. Blake that they have carried off his young wife."

"For that reason or one similar. He is a man of resources, they mayhave hoped he would help them to escape the country."

"If they don't hide in the German quarter they certainly won't in theItalian, French or Irish. What they want is too keep close and rouseno questions. I think they will be found to have gone up the riversomewhere, or over to Jersey. Hoboken would'nt be a bad place to sendSchmidt to."

"You forget what it is they've got on their minds; besides noconspicuous party such as they could live in a rural district withoutattracting more attention than in the most crowded tenement house inthe city."

"Where do you think, then, they would be liable to go?"

"Well my most matured thought on the subject," returned Mr. Gryce,after a moment's deliberation, "is this,--you say, and I agree, thatthey have hampered themselves with this woman at this time for thepurpose of using her hereafter in a scheme of black-mail upon Mr.Blake. He, then, must be the object about which their thoughtsrevolve and toward which whatever operations or plans they may beengaged upon must tend. What follows? When a company of men have madeup their minds to rob a bank, what is the first thing they do? Theyhire, if possible, a house next to the especial building they intendto enter, and for months work upon the secret passage through whichthey hope to reach the safe and its contents; or they make friendswith the watchman that guards its treasures, and the janitor who opensand shuts the doors. In short they hang about their prey before theypounce upon it. And so will these Schoenmakers do in the somewhatdifferent robbery which they plan sooner or later to effect. Whatevermay keep them close at this moment, Mr. Blake and Mr. Blake's house isthe point toward which their eyes are turned, and if we had time--"

"But we have'nt," I broke in impetuously. "It is horrible to think ofthat grand woman languishing away in the power of such rascals."

"If we had time," Mr. Gryce persisted, "all it would be necessary todo would be to wait, they would come into our hands as easily andnaturally as a hawk into the snare of the fowler. But as you say wehave not, and therefore, I would recommend a little beating of thebush directly about Mr. Blake's house; for if all my experience isnot at fault, those men are already within eye-shot of the prey theyintend to run down."

"But," said I, "I have been living myself in that very neighborhoodand know by this time the ways of every house in the vicinity. Thereis not a spot up and down the Avenue for ten blocks where they couldhide away for two days much less two weeks. And as for the sidestreets,--why I could tell you the names of those who live in eachhouse for a considerable distance. Yet if you say so I will go towork--"

"Do, and meanwhile Schmidt and Rosenthal shall rummage the Germanquarter and even go through Williamsburgh and Hoboken. The endjustifies any amount of labor that can be spent upon this matter."

"And you," I asked.

"Will do my part when you have done yours."

CHAPTER XVI

THE MARK OF THE RED CROSS

And what success did I meet? The best in the world. And by what meansdid I attain it? By that of the simplest, prettiest clue I ever cameupon. But let me explain.

When after a wearisome day spent in an ineffectual search through theneighborhood, I went home to my room, which as you remember was afront one in a lodging-house on the opposite corner from Mr. Blake, Iwas so absorbed in mind and perhaps I may say shaken in nerve, by thestrain under which I had been laboring for some time now, that Istumbled up an extra flight of stairs, and without any suspicion ofthe fact, tried the door of the room directly over mine. It is awonder to me now that I could have made the mistake, for the hallswere totally dissimilar, the one above being much more cut up than theone below, besides being flanked by a greater number of doors. But theintoxication of the mind is not far removed from that of the body, andas I say it was not till I had tried the door and found it locked,that I became aware of the mistake I had made.

With the foolish sense of shame that always overcomes us at thecommittal of any such trivial error, I stumbled hastily back, when myfoot trod upon something that broke under my weight. I never let evensmall things pass without some notice. Stooping, then, for what I hadthus inadvertently crushed, I carried it to where a single gas jetturned down very low, made a partial light in the long hall, andexamining it, found it to be a piece of red chalk.

What was there in that simple fact to make me start and hastily recallone or two half-forgotten incidents which, once brought to mind,awoke a train of thought that led to the discovery and capture ofthose two desperate thieves? I will tell you.

I don't remember now whether in my account of the visit I paid to theSchoenmakers' house in Vermont, I informed you of the red cross Inoticed scrawled on the panel of one of the doors. It seemed atrivial thing at the time and made little or no impression upon me,the chances being that I should never have thought of it again, if Ihad not come upon the article just mentioned at a moment when my mindwas full of those very Schoenmakers. But remembered now, togetherwith another half-forgotten fact,--that some days previous I had beentold by the woman who kept the house I was in, that the parties overmy head (two men and a woman I believe she said) were giving her sometrouble, but that they paid well and therefore she did not like toturn them out,--it aroused a vague suspicion in my mind, and led to mywalking back to the door I had endeavored to open in my abstraction,and carefully looking at it.

It was plain and white, rather ruder of make than those below, butoffering no inducements for prolonged scrutiny. But not so with theone that stood at right angles to it on the left. Full in the centreof that, I beheld distinctly scrawled, probably with the very pieceof chalk I then held, a red cross precisely similar in outline to theone I had seen a few days before on the panel of the Schoenmakers'door at Granby.

The discovery sent a thrill over me that almost raised my hair on end.Was, then, this famous trio to be found in the very house in which Ihad been myself living for a week or more? over my head in fact? Icould not withdraw my gaze from the mysterious looking object. I bentnear, I listened, I heard what sounded like the suppressed snore of apowerful man, and almost had to lay hold of myself to prevent my handfrom pushing open that closed door and my feet from entering. As itwas I did finger the knob a little, but an extra loud snore fromwithin reminded me by its suggestion of strength that I was but asmall man and that in this case and at this hour, discretion was thebetter part of valor.

I therefore withdrew, but for the whole night lay awake listening tocatch any sounds that might come from above, and going so far as toplan what I would do if it should be proved that I was indeed uponthe trail of the men I was so anxious to encounter.

With the breaking of day I was upon my feet. A rude step had gone upthe stairs a few minutes before and I was all alert to follow. But Ipresently considered that my wisest course would be to sound thelandlady and learn if possible with what sort of characters I had todeal. Routing her out of the kitchen, where at that early hour shewas already engaged in domestic duties, I drew her into a retiredcorner and put my questions. She was not backward in replying. Shehad conceived an innocent liking for me in the short time I had beenwith her--a display of weakness for which I was myself, perhaps, asmuch to blame as she--and was only too ready to pour out her griefsinto my sympathizing ear. For those men were a grief to her,acceptable as was the money they were careful to provide her with.They were not only always in the house, that is one of them, smokinghis old pipe and blackening up the walls, but they looked so shabby,and kept the girl so close, and if they did go out, came in at suchunheard of hours. It was enough to drive her crazy; yet the money,the money--

"Yes," said I, "I know; and the money ought to make you overlook allthe small disagreeablenesses you mention. What is a landlady withoutpatience." And I urged her not to turn them out.

"But the girl," she went on, "so nice, so quiet, so sick-looking! Icannot stand it to see her cooped up in that small room, alwayswatched over by one or both of those burly wretches. The old man saysshe is his daughter and she does not deny it, but I would as soonthink of that little rosy child you see cooing in the window over theway, belonging to the beggar going in at the gate, as of her with herlady-like ways having any connection with him and his rough-actingson. You ought to see her--"

"That is just what I want to do," interrupted I. "Not because you havetempted my fancy by a recital of her charms," I hastened to add, "butbecause she is, if I don't mistake, a woman for whose discovery andrescue, a large sum of money has been offered."

And without further disguise I acquainted the startled woman before mewith the fact that I was not, as she had always considered, the clerkout of employment whose daily business it was to sally forth in questof a situation, but a member of the city police.

She was duly impressed and easily persuaded to second all myoperations as far as her poor wits would allow, giving me free rangeof her upper story, and above all, promising that secrecy withoutwhich all my finely laid plans for capturing the rogues withoutraising a scandal, would fall headlong to the ground.

Behold me, then, by noon of that same day domiciled in an apartmentnext to the one whose door bore that scarlet sign which had arousedwithin me such feverish hopes the night before. Clad in the seedygarments of a broken down French artist whose acquaintance I had oncemade, with something of his air and general appearance and with a fewof his wretched daubs hung about on the whitewashed wall, I commencedwith every prospect of success as I thought, that quiet espionage ofthe hall and its inhabitants which I considered necessary to a properattainment of the end I had in view.

A racking cough was one of the peculiarities of my friend, anddetermined to assume the character in toto, I allowed myself tostartle the silence now and then with a series of gasps and chokingsthat whether agreeable or not, certainly were of a character to showthat I had no desire to conceal my presence from those I had comeamong. Indeed it was my desire to acquaint them as fully and as soonas possible with the fact of their having a neighbor: a weak-eyedhalf-alive innocent to be sure, but yet a neighbor who would keep hisdoor open night and day--for the warmth of the hall of course--and whowith the fretful habit of an old man who had once been a gentlemanand a beau, went rambling about through the hall speaking to those hemet and expecting a civil word in return. When he was not rambling orcoughing he made architectural monsters out of cardboard, wherewithto tempt the pennies out of the pockets of unwary children, anemployment that kept him chained to a small table in the centre of hisroom directly opposite the open door.

As I expected I had scarcely given way to three separate fits ofcoughing, when the door next me opened with a jerk and a rough voicecalled out,

"Who's that making all that to do about here? If you don't stop thatinfernal noise in a hurry--"

A soft voice interrupted him and he drew back. "I will go see," saidthose gentle tones, and Luttra Blake, for I knew it was she beforethe skirt of her robe had advanced beyond the door, stepped out intothe hall.

I was yet bent over my work when she paused before me. The fact is Idid not dare look up, the moment was one of such importance to me.

"You have a dreadful cough," said she with that low ring of sympathyin her voice that goes unconsciously to the heart. "Is there no helpfor it?"

I pushed back my work, drew my hand over my eyes, (I did not need tomake it tremble) and glanced up. "No," said I with a shake of myhead, "but it is not always so bad. I beg your pardon, miss, if itdisturbs you."

She threw back the shawl which she had held drawn tightly over herhead, and advanced with an easy gliding step close to my side. "Youdo not disturb me, but my father is--is, well a trifle crosssometimes, and if he should speak up a little harsh now and then, youmust not mind. I am sorry you are so ill."

What is there in some women's look, some women's touch that more thanall beauty goes to the heart and subdues it. As she stood therebefore me in her dark worsted dress and coarse shawl, with her lockssimply braided and her whole person undignified by art and ungraced byornament, she seemed just by the power of her expression and thewitchery of her manner, the loveliest woman I had ever beheld.

"You are veree kind, veree good," I murmured, half ashamed of mydisguise, though it was assumed for the purpose of rescuing her."Your sympathy goes to my heart." Then as a deep growl of impatiencerose from the room at my side, I motioned her to go and not irritatethe man who seemed to have such control over her.

"In a minute," answered she, "first tell me what you are making."

So I told her and in the course of telling, let drop such other factsabout my fancied life as I wished to have known to her and throughher to her father. She looked sweetly interested and more than onceturned upon me that dark eye, of which I had heard so much, full oftears that were as much for me, scamp that I was, as for her ownsecret trouble. But the growls becoming more and more impatient shespeedily turned to go, repeating, however, as she did so,

"Now remember what I say, you are not to be troubled if they do speakcross to you. They make noise enough themselves sometimes, as youwill doubtless be assured of to-night."

And the lips which seemed to have grown stiff and cold with hermisery, actually softened into something like a smile.

The nod which I gave her in return had the solemity of a vow in it.

My mind thus assured as to the correctness of my suspicions, and theway thus paved to the carrying out of my plans, I allowed some fewdays to elapse without further action on my part. My motive was toacquaint myself as fully as possible with the habits and ways of thesetwo desperate men, before making the attempt to capture them uponwhich so many interests hung. For while I felt it would be highlycreditable to my sagacity, as well as valuable to my reputation as adetective, to restore these escaped convicts in any way possible intothe hands of justice, my chief ambition after all was to so manage theaffair as to save the wife of Mr. Blake, not only from theconsequences of their despair, but from the publicity and scandalattendant upon the open arrest of two heavily armed men. Strategy,therefore, rather than force was to be employed, and strategy to besuccessful must be founded upon the most thorough knowledge of thematter with which one has to deal. Three days, then, did I give to theacquiring of that knowledge, the result of which was the possessionof the following facts.

1. That the landlady was right when she told me the girl was neverleft alone, one of the men, if not the father then the son, alwaysremaining with her.

2. That while thus guarded, she was not so restricted but that she hadthe liberty of walking in the hall, though never for any length oftime.

3. That the cross on the door seemed to possess some secret meaningconnected with their presence in the house, it having been erased oneevening when the whole three went out on some matter or other, onlyto be chalked on again when in an hour or so later, father anddaughter returned alone.

4. That it was the father and not the son who made such purchases aswere needed, while it was the son and not the father who carried onwhatever operations they had on hand; nightfall being the favoritehour for the one and midnight for the other; though it notinfrequently happened that the latter sauntered out for a short timealso in the afternoon, probably for the drink he could not go longwithout.

5. That they were men of great strength but little alertness; thestray glimpses I had had of them, revealing a breadth of back thatwas truly formidable, if it had not been joined to a heaviness ofmotion that proclaimed a certain stolidity of mind that was eminentlyin our favor.

How best to use these facts in the building up of a matured plan ofaction, was, then, the problem. By noon of a certain day I believedit to have been solved, and reluctant as I was to leave the spot of myespionage even for the hour or two necessary to a visit toheadquarters, I found myself compelled to do so. Packing up in asmall basket I had for the purpose, the little articles I had beenengaged during the last few days in making, I gave way to a final fitof coughing so hollow aud sepulchural in its tone, that it awoke acurse from the next room deep as the growl of a wild beast, and stillcontinuing, finally brought Luttra to the door with that look ofcompassion on her face that always called up a flush to my cheekwhether I wished it or no.

"Come back here," broke in a heavy voice from the room she had left."What do you mean by running off to palaver with that old rascalevery time he opens his ----- battery of a cough?"

A smile that went through me like the cut of a knife, flashed for amoment on her face.

"My father is in one of his impatient moods," said she, "you hadbetter go. I hope you will be successful," she murmured, glancingwistfully at my basket.

"What is that?" again came thundering on our ears. "Successful? Whatare you two up to?" And we heard the rough clatter of advancingsteps.

"Go," said she; "you are weak and old; and when you come back, try andnot cough." And she gave me a gentle push towards the door.

"When I come back," I began, but was forced to pause, the elderSchoenmaker having by this time reached the open doorway where hestood frowning in upon us in a way that made my heart stand still forher.

"What are you two talking about?" said he; "and what have you got inyour basket there?" he continued with a stride forward that shook thefloor.

"Only some little toys that he has been making, and is now going outto sell," was her low answer given with a quick deprecatory gesturesuch as I doubt if she ever used for herself.

"Nothing more?" asked he in German with a red glare in the eye heturned towards her.

"Nothing more," replied she in the same tongue. "You may believe me."

He gave a deep growl and turned away. "If there was," said he, "youknow what would happen." And unheeding the wild keen shudder thatseized her at the word, making her insensible for the moment to alland everything about her, he laid one heavy hand upon her slightshoulder and led her from the room.

I waited no longer than was necessary to carry my feeble and falteringsteps appropriately down the stairs, to reach the floor below andgain the landlady's presence.

"Do you go up," said I, "and sit on those stairs till I come back. Ifyou hear the least cry of pain or sound of struggle from that younggirl's room, do you call at once for help. I will have a policemanstanding on the corner below."

The good woman nodded and proceeded at once to take up herwork-basket. "Lucky there's a window up there, so I can see," Iheard her mutter. "I've no time to throw away even on deeds ofcharity."

Notwithstanding which precaution, I was in constant anxiety during myabsence; an absence necessarily prolonged as I had to stop andexplain matters to the Superintendent, as well as hunt up Mr. Gryceand get his consent to assist me in the matter of the impendingarrest.

I found the latter in his own home and more than enthusiastic upon thesubject.

"Well," said he after I had informed him of the discoveries I hadmade, "the fates seem to prosper you in this. I have not received aninkling of light upon the matter since I parted from you at Mr.Blake's house. By the way I saw that gentleman this morning and Itell you we will find him a grateful man if this affair can beresolved satisfactorily,"

'That is good," said I," gratitude is what we want." Then shortly,"Perhaps it is no more than our duty to let him know that his wife issafe and under my eye; though I would by no means advocate hisknowing just how near him she is, till the moment comes when he iswanted, or we shall have a lover's impetuosity to deal with as wellas all the rest." Then with a hurried rememberance of a possiblecontingency, went on to say, "But, by the way, in case we should needthe cooperation of Mrs. Blake in what we have before us, you hadbetter get a line written in French from Mrs. Daniels, expressive ofher belief in Mr. Blake's present affection for his wife. The latterwill not otherwise trust us, or understand that we are to be obeyedin whatever we may demand. Let it be unsigned and without names incase of accident; and if the housekeeper don't understand French,tell her to get some one to help her that does, only be sure that thehandwriting employed is her own."

Mr. Gryce seemed to perceive the wisdom of this precaution andpromised to procure me such a note by a certain hour, after which Irelated to him the various other details of the capture such as I hadplanned it, meeting to my secret gratification an unqualified approvalthat went far towards alleviating that wound to my pride which I hadreceived from him in the beginning of this affair.

"Let all things proceed as you have determined, and we shallaccomplish something that it will be a life-long satisfaction toremember," said he; "but you must be prepared for some twist of thescrew which you do not anticipate. I never knew anything to go offjust as one prognosticates it must, except once," he addedthoughtfully, "and then it was with a surprise attached to it thatwell nigh upset me notwithstanding all my preparations."

"You won a great success that day," remarked I. "I hope the fates willbe as propitious to me to-morrow. Failure now would break my heart."

And in this assurance I returned to my lodgings where I found thelandlady sitting where I had left her, darning her twenty-third sock.

"I have to mend for a dozen men and three boys," said she, "and theboys are the worst by a heap sight. Look at that, will you," holdingup a darn with a bit of stocking attached. "That hole was madeplaying shinny."

I uttered my condolences and asked if any sound or disturbance hadreached her ears from above.

"O no, all is right up there; I've scarcely heard a whisper sinceyou've been gone."

I gave her a pat on the chin scarcely consistent with my aged andtottering mien and proceeded to shamble painfully to my room.

CHAPTER XVII

THE CAPTURE

Promptly next morning at the designated hour, came the little notepromised me by Mr. Gryce. It was put in my hand with many sly winksby the landlady herself, who developed at this crisis quite anadaptation for, if not absolute love of intrigue and mystery. Glancingover it--it was unsealed--and finding it entirely unintelligible, Itook it for granted it was all right and put it by till chance, or ifthat failed, strategy, should give me an opportunity to communicatewith Mrs. Blake. An hour passed; the doors of their rooms remainedunclosed. A half hour more dragged its slow minutes away, and no soundhad come from their precincts save now and then a mumbled word ofparley between the father and son, a short command to the daughter,or a not-to-be-restrained oath of annoyance from one or both of theheavy-limbed brutes as something was said or done to disturb them intheir indolent repose. At last my impatience was to be no longerrestrained. Rising, I took a bold resolution. If the mountain wouldnot come to Mahomet, Mahomet would go to the mountain. Taking myletter in the hand, I deliberately proceeded to the door marked withthe ominous red cross and knocked.

A surprised snarl from within, followed by a sudden shuffling of feetas the two men leaped upright from what I presume had been a recumbentposition, warned me to be ready to face defiance if not the fury ofdespair; and curbing with a determined effort the slight sinking ofheart natural to a man of my make on the threshold of a very doubtfuladventure, I awaited with as much apparent unconcern as possible, thequick advance of that light foot which seemed to be ready to performall the biddings of these hardened wretches, much as it shrunk fromfollowing in the ways of their infamy.

"Ah miss," said I, as the door opened revealing in the gap her whiteface clouded with some new and sudden apprehension, "I beg yourpardon but I am an old man, and I got a letter to-day and my eyes areso weak with the work I've been doing that I cannot read it. It isfrom some one I love, and would you be so kind as to read off thewords for me and so relieve an old man from his anxiety."

The murmur of suspicion behind her, warned her to throw wide open thedoor. "Certainly," said she, "if I can," taking the paper in herhand.

"Just let me get a squint at that first," said a sullen voice behindher; and the youngest of the two Schoenmakers stepped forward andtore the paper out of her grasp.

"You are too suspicious," murmured she, looking after him with thefirst assumption of that air of power and determination which I hadheard so eloquently described by the man who loved her. "There isnothing in those lines which concerns us; let me have them back."

"You hold your tongue," was the brutal reply as the rough man openedthe folded paper and read or tried to read what was written within."Blast it! it's French," was his slow exclamation after a momentspent in this way. "See," and he thrust it towards his father whostood frowning heavily a few feet off.

"Of course, it's French," cried the girl. "Would you write a note inEnglish to father there? The man's friends are French like himself,and must write in their own language."

"Here take it and read it out," commanded her father; "and mind youtell us what it means. I'll have nothing going on here that I don'tunderstand."

"Read me the French words first, miss," said I. "It is my letter and Iwant to know what my friend has to say to me."

Nodding at me with a gentle look, she cast her eyes on the paper andbegan to read:

"Thanks!" I exclaimed in a calm matter-of-fact way as I perceived thesudden tremor that seized her as she recognized the handwriting andrealized that the words were for her. "My friend says he will pay myweek's rent and bids me be at home to receive him," said I, turningupon the two ferocious faces peering over her shoulder, with a lookof meek unsuspiciousness in my eye, that in a theatre would havebrought down the house.

"Is that what those words say, you?" asked the father, pointing overher shoulder to the paper she held.

"I will translate for you word by word what it says," replied she,nerving herself for the crisis till her face was like marble, thoughI could see she could not prevent the gleam of secret rapture that hadvisited her, from flashing fitfully across it. "Calmez vous, monamie. Do not be afraid, my friend. Il vous aime et il vous cherche.He loves you and is hunting for you. Dans quatre heures vous serezheureuse. In four hours you will be happy. Allons du courage, etsurtout soyez maitre de vous meme. Then take courage and above allpreserve your self-possession. It is the French way of expressingone's self," observed she. "I am glad your friend is disposed to helpyou," she continued, giving me back the letter with a smile. "I amafraid you needed it."

In a sort of maze I folded up the letter, bowed my very humble thanksto her and shuffled slowly back. The fact is I had no words; I wasutterly dumbfounded. Half way through that letter, with whosecontents you must remember I was unacquainted, I would have given mywhole chance of expected reward to have stopped her. Read out suchwords as those before these men! Was she crazy? But how naturally atthe conclusion did she with a word make its language seem consistentwith the meaning I had given it. With a fresh sense of my obligationto her, I hurried to my room, there to count out the minutes ofanother long hour in anxious expectation of her making that endeavorto communicate with me, which her new hopes and fears must force herto feel almost necessary to her existence. At length, my confidence inher was rewarded. Coming out into the hall, she hurried past my door,her finger on her lip. I immediately rose and stood on the thresholdwith another paper in my hand, which I had prepared against thisopportunity. As she glided back, I put it in her hand, and warningher with a look not to speak, resumed my usual occupation. The wordsI had written were as follows:

At or as near the time as possible of your brother's going out, you are to come to this room wrapped in an extra skirt and with your shawl over your head. Leave the skirt and shawl behind you, and withdraw at once to the room at the head of the stairs. You are not to speak, and you are not to vary from the plan thus laid down. Your brother and father are to be arrested, whether or no; but if you will do as this commands, they will be arrested without bloodshed and without shame to one you know.

Her face while she read these lines, was a study, but I dared notsoften toward it. Dropping the paper from her hand, she gave me oneinquiring look. But I pointed determinedly to the words lying upwardon the floor, and would listen to no appeal. My resolve had itseffect. Bowing her head with a sorrowful gesture, she laid her handon her heart, looked up and glided from the room. I took up thatpaper and tore it into bits.

And now for the first time since I had been in the house, I closed thedoor of my room. I had a part to perform that rendered the droppingof my disguise indispensable. The old French artist had finished hiswork, and henceforth must merge into Q. the detective. Shortly beforetwo o'clock my assistants began to arrive. First, Mr. Gryce appearedon the scene and was stowed away in a large room on the other side ofmine. Next, two of the most agile, as well as muscular men in theforce who, thanks to having taken off their shoes in the lower hall,gained the same refuge without awakening the suspicions of those wewere anxious to surprise. Lastly, the landlady who went into thecloset to which I had bidden Mrs. Blake retire after leaving in myroom the articles I had mentioned.

All was now ready and waiting for the departure of the youngestSchoenmaker. Would he disappoint us and remain at home that day? Hadany suspicions been awakened in the stolid breasts of these men, thatwould serve to make them more watchful than usual against runningunnecessary risks? No; at or near the time for the clock to striketwo, their door opened and the tread of a lumbering foot was heard inthe hall. On it came, passing my room with a rude stamping thatgradually grew less distinct as the hardy rough went down thecorridor, brushing the wall behind which Mr. Gryce and his men layconcealed with his thick cane, and even stopping to light his pipe infront of the small apartment where cowered our good landlady with hereternal basket of mending in her lap.

At length all was quiet, and throwing open my door, I withdrew into asmall closet connected with my room, to wait with indescribableimpatience, the appearance of Mrs. Blake. She came in a very fewminutes, remained for an instant, and departed, leaving behind her asI had requested, the skirt and shawl in which she had left herfather's presence. I at once endued myself in these articles ofapparel--taking care to draw the shawl well over my head--and with apocket handkerchief to my face, (a proceeding made natural enough bythe sneeze which at that very moment I took care should assail me)walked boldly back to the room from which she had just come.

The door was of course ajar, and as I swung it open with as near asimulation of her manner as possible, the vision of her powerfulfather lolling on a bench directly before me, offered anything but anencouraging spectacle to my eyes. But doubling myself almost togetherwith as ladylike an atch-ee as my masculine nostrils would allow, Isucceeded in closing the door and reaching a low stool by the windowwithout calling from him anything worse than a fretful "I hope you arenot going to bark too."

I did not reply to this of course, but sat with my face turned towardsthe street in an attitude which I hoped would awaken his attentionsufficiently to cause him to get up and come over to my side. For ashe sat face to the door it would be impossible to take him bysurprise, and that, now that I saw what a huge and muscular creaturehe was, seemed to me to be the only safe method before us. But,whether from the sullenness of his disposition or the very evidentlaziness of the moment, he manifested no disposition to move, andhearing or thinking I did, the stealthy advance of Mr. Gryce and hiscompanions down the hall, I allowed myself to give way to asuppressed exclamation, and leaning forward, pressed my foreheadagainst the pane of glass before me as if something of absorbinginterest had just taken place in the street beneath.

His fears at once took alarm. Bounding up with a curse, he strodetowards me, muttering,

"What's up now? What's that you are looking at?" reaching my sidejust as Mr. Gryce and his two men softly opened the door and with aquick leap threw their arms about him, closing upon him with a forcehe could not resist, desperate as he was and mighty in the hugestrength of an unusually developed muscular organization.

"You, you girl there, are to blame for this!" came mingled with cursesfrom his lips, as with one huge pant he submitted to his captors."Only let me get my hand well upon you once--Damn it!" he suddenlyexclaimed, dragging the whole three men forward in his effort to gethis mouth down to my ear, "go and rub that sign out on the door orI'll--you know what I'll do well enough. Do you hear?"

Rising, still with face averted, I proceeded to do what he asked. Butin another moment seeing that he had been effectually bound andgagged, I took out the piece of red chalk I had kept in my pocket,and deliberately chalked it on again, after which operation I cameback and took my seat as before on the low stool by the window.

The object now was to secure the second rascal in the same way we hadthe first; and for this purpose Mr. Gryce ordered the now helplessgiant to be dragged into the adjoining small room formerly occupiedby Mrs. Blake, where he and his men likewise took up their stationleaving me to confront as best I might, the surprise andconsternation of the one whose return we now awaited.

I did not shrink. With that brave woman's garments drawn about me,something of her dauntless spirit seemed to invade my soul, andthough I expected--But let that come in its place, I am not here tointerest you in myself or my selfish thoughts.

A half hour passed; he had never lingered away so long before, or soit seemed, and I was beginning to wonder if we should have to keep upthis strain of nerve for hours, when the heavy tread was again heardin the hall, and with a blow of the fist that argued anger or abrutal impatience, he flung open the door and came in, I did not turnmy head.

"Where's father?" he growled, stopping where he was a foot or so fromthe door.

I shook my head with a slight gesture and remained looking out.

He brought his cane down on the floor with a thump. "What do you meanby sitting there staring out of the window like mad and not answeringwhen I ask you a decent question?"

Still I made no reply.

Provoked beyond endurance, yet held in check by that vague sense ofdanger in the air,--which while not amounting to apprehension isoften sufficient to hold back from advance the most daring foot,--hestood glaring at me in what I felt to be a very ferocious attitude,but made no offer to move. Instantly I rose and still looking out ofthe window, made with my hand what appeared to be a signal to some oneon the opposite side of the way. The ruse was effective. With an oaththat rings in my ears yet, he lifted his heavy cane and advanced uponme with a bound, only to meet the same fate as his father at the handsof the watchful detectives. Not, however, before that heavy cane camedown upon my head in a way to lay me in a heap at his feet and to sowthe seeds of that blinding head-ache, which has afflicted me by spellsever since. But this termination of the affair was no more than I hadfeared from the beginning; and indeed it was as much to protect Mrs.Blake from the wrath of these men, as from any requirements of thesituation I had assumed the disguise I then wore. I therefore did notallow this mishap to greatly trouble me, unpleasant as it was at thetime, but, as soon as ever I could do so, rose from the floor andthrowing off my strange habiliments, proceeded to finish up to mysatisfaction, the work already so successfully begun.

CHAPTER XVIII

LOVE AND DUTY

Dismissing the men who had assisted us in the capture of these twohardy villains, we ranged our prisoners before us.

"Now," said Mr. Gryce, "no fuss and no swearing; you are in for it,and you might as well take it quietly as any other way."

"Give me a clutch on that girl, that's all," said her father, "Whereis she? Let me see her; every father has a right to see his owndaughter,"

"You shall see her," returned my superior, "but not till her husbandis here to protect her."

"Her husband? ah, you know about that do you?" growled the heavy voiceof the son. "A rich man they say he is and a proud one. Let him comeand look at us lying here like dogs and say how he will enjoy havinghis wife's father and brother grinding away their lives in prison."

"Mr. Blake is coming," quoth Mr. Gryce, who by some preconcertedsignal from the window had drawn that gentleman across the street."He will tell you himself that he considers prison the best place foryou. Blast you! but he--"

"But he, what?" inquired I, as the door opened and Mr. Blake with apale face and agitated mien entered the room.

The wretch did not answer. Rousing from the cowering position in whichthey had both lain since their capture, the father and son struggledup in some sort of measure to their feet, and with hot, anxious eyessurveyed the countenance of the gentleman before them, as if they felttheir fate hung upon the expression of his pallid face. The son wasthe first to speak.

"How do you do, brother-in-law," were his sullen and insulting words.

Mr. Blake shuddered and cast a look around.

"My wife?" murmured he.

"She is well," was the assurance given by Mr. Gryce, "and in a roomnot far from this. I will send for her if you say so."

"No, not yet," came in a sort of gasp; "let me look at these wretchesfirst, and understand if I can what my wife has to suffer from herconnection with them."

"Your wife," broke in the father, "what's that to do with it; thequestion is how do you like it and what will you do to get us clearof this thing."

"I will do nothing," returned Mr. Blake. "You amply merit your doomand you shall suffer it to the end for all time."

"It will read well in the papers," exclaimed the son.

"The papers are to know nothing about it," I broke in. "All knowledgeof your connection with Mr. or Mrs. Blake is to be buried in thisspot before we or you leave it. Not a word of her or him is to crossthe lips of either of you from this hour. I have set that down as acondition and it has got to be kept."

"You have, have you," thundered in chorus from father and son. "Andwho are you to make conditions, and what do you think we are that youexpect us to keep them? Can you do anymore than put us back fromwhere we came from?"

For reply I took from my pocket the ring I had fished out of the ashesof their kitchen stove on that memorable visit to their house, andholding it up before their faces, looked them steadily in the eye.

A sudden wild glare followed by a bluish palor that robbed theircountenances of their usual semblance of daring ferocity, answered mebeyond my fondest hopes.

"I got that out of the stove where you had burned your prisonclothing," said I. "It is a cheap affair, but it will send you to thegallows if I choose to use it against you. The pedlar--"

"Hush," exclaimed the father in a low choked tone greatly in contrastto any he had yet used in all our dealings with him. "Throw that ringout of the window and I promise to hold my tongue about any matteryou don't want spoke of. I'm not a fool--"

"Nor I," was my quick reply, as I restored the ring to my pocket."While that remains in my possession together with certain factsconcerning your habits in that old house of yours which have latelybeen made known to me, your life hangs by a thread I can any minutesnip in two. Mr. Blake here, has spent some portion of a night inyour house and knows how near it lies to a certain precipice, at footof which--"

"Mein Gott, father, why don't you say something!" leaped in cowedaccents from the son's white lips. "If they want us to keep quiet,let them say so and not go talking about things that--"

"Now look here," interposed Mr. Gryce stepping before them with a lookthat closed their mouths at once. "I will just tell you what wepropose to do. You are to go back to prison and serve your time out,there is no help for that, but as long as you behave yourselves andcontinue absolutely silent regarding your relationship to the wife ofthis gentleman, you shall have paid into a certain bank that he willname, a monthly sum that upon your dismissal from jail shall be paidyou with whatever interest it may have accumulated. You are ready topromise that, are you not?" he inquired turning to Mr. Blake.

That gentleman bowed and named the sum, which was liberal enough, andthe bank.

"But," continued the detective, ignoring the sudden flash of eye thatpassed between the father and son, "let me or any of us hear of aword having been uttered by you, which in the remotest way shallsuggest that you have in the world such a connection as Mrs. Blake,and the money not only stops going into the bank, but old scoresshall be raked up against you with a zeal which if it does not stopyour mouth in one way, will in another, and that with a suddennessyou will not altogether relish."

The men with a dogged air from which the bravado had however fled,turned and looked from one to the other of us in a fearful, inquiringway that duly confessed to the force of the impression made by thesewords upon their slow but not unimaginative minds.

"Do you three promise to keep our secret if we keep yours?" mutteredthe father with an uneasy glance at my pocket.

"We certainly do," was our solemn return.

"Very well; call in the girl and let me just look at her, then, beforewe go. We won't say nothing," continued he, seeing Mr. Blake shrink,"only she is my daughter and if I cannot bid her good-bye--"

"Let him see his child," cried Mr. Blake turning with a shudder to thewindow. "I--I wish it," added he.

Straightway with hasty foot I left the room. Going to the littlecloset where I had ordered his wife to remain concealed, I knockedand entered. She was crouched in an attitude of prayer on the floor,her face buried in her hands, and her whole person breathing thatagony of suspense that is a torture to the sensitive soul.

"Mrs. Blake," said I, dismissing the landlady who stood in helplessdistress beside her, "the arrest has been satisfactorily made andyour father calls for you to say good-bye before going away with us.Will you come?"

"But my--my--Mr. Blake?" exclaimed she leaping to her feet. "I amsure I heard his footstep in the hall?"

"He is with your father and brother. It was at his command I came foryou."

A gleam hard to interpret flashed for an instant over her face. Withher eye on the door she towered in her womanly dignity, whilethoughts innumerable seemed to rush in wild succession through hermind.

"Will you not come?" I urged.

"I--," she paused. "I will go see my father," she murmured, "but--"

Suddenly she trembled and drew back; a step was in the hall, on thethreshold, at her side; Mr. Blake had come to reclaim his bride.

"Mr. Blake!"

The word came from her in a low tone shaken with the concentratedanguish of many a month of longing and despair, but there was noinvitation in its sound, and he who had held out his arms, stoppedand surveying her with a certain deprecatory glance in his proud eye,said,

"You are right; I have first my acknowledgments to make and yourforgiveness to ask before I can hope--"

"Unkindly?" A world of love thrilled in that word. "Luttra, I am yourhusband and rejoice that I am so; it is to lay the devotion of myheart and life at your feet that I seek your presence this hour. Theyear has taught me--ah, what has not the year taught me of the worthof her I so recklessly threw from me on my wedding day. Luttra,"--heheld out his hand--"will you crown all your other acts of devotionwith a pardon that will restore me to my manhood and that place inyour esteem which I covet above every other earthly good?"

Her face which had been raised to his with that earnest look we knewso well, softened with an ineffable smile, but still she did not layher hand in his.

"And you say this to me in the very hour of my father's and brother'sarrest! With the remembrance in your mind of their bound and abjectforms lying before you guarded by police; knowing too, that theydeserve their ignominy and the long imprisonment that awaits them?"

"No, I say it on the day of the discovery and the restoration of thatwife for whom I have long searched, and to whom when found I have noword to give but welcome, welcome, welcome."

With the same deep smile she bowed her head, "Now let come what will,I can never again be unhappy," were the words I caught, uttered inthe lowest of undertones. But in another moment her head hadregained its steady poise and a great change had passed over hermanner.

"Mr. Blake," said she, "you are good; how good, I alone can know andduly appreciate who have lived in your house this last year and seenwith eyes that missed nothing, just what your surroundings are andhave been from the earliest years of your proud life. But goodnessmust not lead you into the committal of an act you must and willrepent to your dying day; or if it does, I who have learned my dutyin the school of adversity, must show the courage of two and forbidwhat every secret instinct of my soul declares to be only provocativeof shame and sorrow. You would take me to your heart as your wife; doyou realize what that means?"

"I think I do," was his earnest reply. "Relief from heart-ache,Luttra."

Her smooth brow wrinkled with a sudden spasm of pain but her firm lipsdid not quiver.

"It means," said she, drawing nearer but not with that approach whichindicates yielding, "it means, shame to the proudest family thatlives in the land. It means silence as regards a past blotted bysuggestions of crime; and apprehension concerning a future acrosswhich the shadow of prison walls must for so many years lie. Itmeans, the hushing of certain words upon beloved lips; the turning ofcherished eyes from visions where fathers and daughters ay, brothersand sisters are seen joined together in tender companionship orloving embrace. It means,--God help me to speak out--a home withoutthe sanctity of memories; a husband without the honors he has beenaccustomed to enjoy; a wife with a fear gnawing like a serpent intoher breast; and children, yes, perhaps children from whose innocentlips the sacred word of grandfather can never fall without wakening ablush on the cheeks of their parents, which all their lovesomeprattle will be helpless to chase away."

"Luttra, your father and your brother have given their consent to gotheir dark way alone and trouble you no more. The shadow you speak ofmay lie on your heart, dear wife, for these men are of your ownblood, but it need never invade the hearthstone beside which I ask youto sit. The world will never know, whether you come with me or not,that Luttra Blake was ever Luttra Schoenmaker. Will you not thengive me the happiness of striving to make such amends for the past,that you too, will forget you ever bore any other name than the oneyou now honor so truly?"

"O do not," she began but paused with a sudden control of her emotionthat lifted her into an atmosphere almost holy in its significance."Mr. Blake," said she, "I am a woman and therefore weak to the voiceof love pleading in my ear. But in one thing I am strong, and that isin my sense of what is due to the man I have sworn to honor. Elevenmonths ago I left you because your pleasure and my own dignitydemanded it; to-day I put by all the joy and exaltation you offer,because your position as a gentleman, and your happiness as a manequally requires it."

"My happiness as a man!" he broke in. "Ah, Luttra if you love me as Ido you--"

"I might perhaps yield," she allowed with a faint smile. "But I loveyou as a girl brought up amid surroundings from which her whole beingrecoiled, must love the one who first brought light into her darknessand opened up to her longing feet the way to a life of culture, purityand honor. I were the basest of women could I consent to repay sucha boundless favor--"

"But Luttra," he again broke in, "you married me knowing what yourfather and brother were capable of committing."

"Yes, yes; I was blinded by passion, a girl's passion, Mr. Blake, bornof glamour and gratitude; not the self-forgetting devotion of a womanwho has tasted the bitterness of life and so learned its lesson ofsacrifice. I may not have thought, certainly I did not realize, whatI was doing. Besides, my father and brother were not convictedcriminals at that time, however weak they had proved themselves undertemptation. And then I believed I had left them behind me on the roadof life; that we were sundered, irrevocably cut loose from allpossible connection. But such ties are not to be snapped so easily.They found me, you see, and they will find me again--"

"Never!" exclaimed her husband. "They are as dead to you as if thegrave had swallowed them. I have taken care of that."

"But the shame! you have not taken care of that. That exists and must,and while it does I remain where I can meet it alone. I love you;God's sun is not dearer to my eyes; but I will never cross yourthreshold as your wife till the opprobrium can be cut loose from myskirts, and the shadow uplifted from my brow. A queen with highthoughts in her eyes and brave hopes in her heart were not too good toenter that door with you. Shall a girl who has lived three weeks inan atmosphere of such crime and despair, that these rooms have oftenseemed to me the gateway to hell, carry there, even in secrecy, theeffects of that atmosphere? I will cherish your goodness in my heartbut do not ask me to bury that heart in any more exalted spot, thansome humble country home, where my life may be spent in good deeds andmy love in prayers for the man I hold dear, and because I hold dear,leave to his own high path among the straight and unshadowed coursesof the world."

And with a gesture that inexorably shut him off while it expressed themost touching appeal, she glided by him and took her way to the roomwhere her father and brother awaited her presence.

CHAPTER XIX

EXPLANATIONS

"I cannot endure this," came in one burst of feeling from the lips ofMr. Blake. "She don't know, she don't realize--Sir," cried he,suddenly becoming conscious of my presence in the room, "will you begood enough to see that this note," he hastily scribbled one, "iscarried across the way to my house and given to Mrs. Daniels."

I bowed assent, routed up one of the men in the next room anddespatched it at once.

"Perhaps she will listen to the voice of one of her own sex if not tome," said he; and began pacing the floor of the narrow room in whichwe were, with a wildness of impatience that showed to what depths hadsunk the hope of gaining this lovely woman for his own.

Feeling myself no longer necessary in that spot, I followed where mywishes led and entered the room where Luttra was bidding good-bye toher father.

"I shall never forget," I heard her say as I crossed the floor towhere Mr. Gryce stood looking out of the window, "that your bloodruns in my veins together with that of my gentle-hearted, never-to-be-forgotten mother. Whatever my fate may be or wherever I may hide thehead you have bowed to the dust, be sure I shall always lift up myhands in prayer for your repentance and return to an honest life. Godgrant that my prayers may be heard and that I may yet receive at yourhands, a father's kindly blessing."

The only answer to this was a heavily muttered growl that gave butlittle promise of any such peaceful termination to a deeply viciouslife. Hearing it, Mr. Gryce hastened to procure his men and removethe hardened wretches from the spot. All through the preparations fortheir departure, she stood and watched their sullen faces with a wildyearning in her eye that could scarcely be denied, but when the doorfinally closed upon them, and she was left standing there with no onein the room but myself she steadied herself up as one who isconscious that all the storms of heaven are about to break upon her;and turning slowly to the door waited with arms crossed and a stilldetermination upon her brow, the coming of the feet of him whoseresolve she felt must have, as yet been only strengthened by herresistance.

She had not long to wait. Almost with the closing of the street doorupon the detectives and their prisoners, Mr. Blake followed by Mrs.Daniels and another lady whose thick veil and long cloak but illyconcealed the patrician features and stately form of the Countess DeMirac, entered the room.

The surprise had its effect; Luttra was evidently for the momentthrown off her guard.

"Mrs. Daniels!" she breathed, holding out her hands with a longinggesture.

"My dear mistress!" returned that good woman, taking those hands inhers but in a respectful way that proved the constraint imposed uponher by Mr. Blake's presence. "Do I see you again and safe?"

"You must have thought I cared little for the anxiety you would besure to feel," said that fair young mistress, gazing with earnestnessinto the glad but tearful eyes of the housekeeper. "But indeed, Ihave been in no position to communicate with you, nor could I do sowithout risking that to protect which I so outraged my feelings as toleave the house at all. I mean the life and welfare of its master,Mrs. Daniels."

"Ha, what is that?" quoth Mr. Blake. "It was to save me, you consentedto follow them?"

"Yes; what else would have led me to such an action? They might havekilled me, I would not have cared, but when they began to utterthreats against you--"

A pink flush, the first I had seen on her usually pale countenance,rose for an instant to her cheeks, and she seemed to hesitate.

"It was not there when I last saw you, Mrs. Blake."

"No," was the slow reply, "I found myself forced that night to inflictupon myself a little wound. It is nothing, let it go."

"No, Luttra I cannot let it go," said her husband, advancing towardsher with something like gentle command. "I must hear not only aboutthis but all the other occurrences of that night. How came they tofind you in the refuge you had attained?"

"I think," said she in a low tone the underlying suffering of which itwould be hard to describe, "that it was not to seek me they firstinvaded your house. They had heard you were a rich man, and the sightof that ladder running up the side of the new extension was too muchfor them. Indeed I know that it was for purposes of robbery theycame, for they had hired this room opposite you some days previous tomaking the attempt. You see they were almost destitute of money andthough they had some buried in the cellar of the old house inVermont, they dared not leave the city to procure it. My brother wasobliged to do so later, however. It was a surprise to them seeing mein your house. They had reached the roof of the extension and werejust lifting up the corner of the shade I had dropped across the openwindow--I always open my window a few minutes before preparing toretire--when I rose from the chair in which I had been brooding, andturned up the gas. I was combing my hair at the time and so of coursethey recognized me. Instantly they gave a secret signal I, alas,remembered only too well, and crouching back, bade me put out thelight that they might enter with safety. I was at first too muchstartled to realize the consequences of my action, and with somevague idea that they had discovered my retreat and come for purposesof advice or assistance, I did what they bid. Immediately they threwback the shade and came in, their huge figures looming frightfully inthe faint light made by a distant gas lamp in the street below. 'Whatdo you want?' were my first words uttered in a voice I scarcelyrecognized for my own; 'why do you steal on me like this in the nightand through an open window fifty feet from the ground? Aren't youafraid you will be discovered and sent back to the prison from whichyou have escaped?' Their reply sent a chill through my blood andawoke me to a realization of what I had done in thus allowing twoescaped convicts to enter a house not my own. 'We want money andwe're not afraid of anything now you are here.' And without heedingmy exclamation of horror, they coolly told me that they would waitwhere they were till the household was asleep, when they would expectme to show them the way to the silver closet or what was better, thesafe or wherever it was Mr. Blake kept his money. I saw they took mefor a servant, as indeed I was, and for some minutes I managed topreserve that position in their eyes. But when in a sudden burst ofrage at my refusal to help them, they pushed me aside and hurried tothe door with the manifest intention of going below, I forgotprudence in my fears and uttered some wild appeal to them not to doinjury to any one in the house for it was my husband's. Of coursethat disclosure had its natural effect.

"They stopped, but only to beset me with questions till the wholetruth came out. I could not have committed a worse folly than thustaking them into my confidence. Instantly the advantages to be gainedby using my secret connection with so wealthy a man for the purpose ofcowering me and blackmailing him, seemed to strike both their mindsat once, slow as they usually are to receive impressions. The silver-closet and money-safe sank to a comparatively insignificant positionin their eyes, and to get me out of the house, and with my happinessat stake, treat with the honorable man who notwithstanding hisnon-approval of me as a woman, still regarded me as his lawfullywedded wife, became in their eyes a thing of such wonderful promisethey were willing to run any and every risk to test its value. Buthere to their great astonishment I rebelled; astonishment becausethey could not realize my desiring anything above money and theposition to which they declared I was by law entitled. In vain Ipleaded my love; in vain I threatened exposure of their plans if notwhereabouts. The mine of gold which they fondly believed they hadstumbled upon unawares, promised too richly to be easily abandoned.'You must go with us,' said they, 'if not peaceably then by force,'and they actually advanced upon me, upsetting a chair and tearing downone of the curtains to which I clung. It was then I committed thatlittle act concerning which you questioned me. I wanted to show themI was not to be moved by threats of that character; that I did noteven fear the shedding of my blood; and that they would only bewasting their time in trying to sway me by hints of personalviolence. And they were a little impressed, sufficiently so at leastto turn their threats in another direction, awakening fears at lastwhich I could not conceal, much as I felt it would be policy to doso. Gathering up a few articles I most prized, my wedding ring, Mr.Blake, and a photograph of yourself that Mrs. Daniels had been kindenough to give me, I put on my bonnet and cloak and said I would gowith them, since they persisted in requiring it. The fact is I nolonger possessed motive or strength to resist. Even your unexpectedappearance at the door, Mrs. Daniels, offered no prospect of hope.Arouse the house? what would that do? only reveal my cherished secretand perhaps jeopardize the life of my husband. Besides, they were myown near kin, remember, and so had some little claim upon myconsideration, at least to the point of my not personally betrayingthem unless they menaced immediate and actual harm. The escape by thewindow which would have been a difficult task for most women toperform, was easy enough for me. I was brought up to wild ways youknow, and the descent of a ladder forty feet long was a comparativelytrivial thing for me to accomplish. It was the tearing away from alife of silent peace, the reentrance of my soul into an atmosphere ofsin and deadly plotting, that was the hard thing, the difficultdreadful thing which hung weights to my feet, and made me well nighmad. And it was this which at the sight of a policeman in the streetled me to make an effort to escape. But it was not successful. ThoughI was fortunate enough to free myself from the grasp of my father andbrother, I reached the gate on ----- street only to encounter the eyesof him whose displeasure I most feared, looking sternly upon me fromthe other side. The shock was too much for me in my then weak andunnerved condition. Without considering anything but the fact that henever had known and never must, that I had been in the same house withhim for so long, I rushed back to the corner and into the arms of themen who awaited me. How you came to be there, Mr. Blake, or why youdid not open the gate and follow, I cannot say."

"The gate was locked," returned that gentleman. "You remember itcloses with a spring, and can only be opened by means of a key whichI did not have."

"My father had it," she murmured; "he spent a whole week in theendeavor to get hold of it, and finally succeeded on the evening ofthe very day he used it. It was left in the lock I believe."

"So much for servants," I whispered to myself.

"The next morning," continued she, "they put the case very plainlybefore me. I was at liberty to return at once to my home if I wouldpromise to work in their interest by making certain demands upon youas your wife. All they wanted, said they, was a snug little sum and alift out of the country. If I would secure them these, they wouldtrouble me no more. But I could not concede to anything of thatnature, of course, and the consequence was these long weeks ofimprisonment and suspense; weeks that I do not now begrudge, seeingthey have brought me the assurance of your esteem and the knowledge,that wherever I go, your thoughts will follow me with compassion ifnot with love."

And having told her story and thus answered his demands, she assumedonce more the position of lofty reserve that seemed to shut him backfrom advance like a wall of invincible crystal.

CHAPTER XX

THE BOND THAT UNITES

But he was not to be discouraged. "And after all this, after all youhave suffered for my sake and your own, do you think you have a rightto deny me the one desire of my heart? How can you reconcile it withyour ideas of devotion, Luttra?"

"My ideas of devotion look beyond the present, Mr. Blake. It is tosave you from years of wearing anxiety that I consent to theinfliction upon you of a passing pang."

He took a bold step forward. "Luttra, you do not know a man's heart.To lose you now would not merely inflict a passing pang, but sow theseeds of a grief that would go with me to the grave."

"Do you then"--she began, but paused blushing. Mrs. Daniels took theopportunity to approach her on the other side.

"My dear mistress," said she, "you are wrong to hold out in thismatter." And her manner betrayed something of the peculiar agitationthat had belonged to it in the former times of her secretembarassment. "I, who have honored the family which I have so longserved, above every other in the land, tell you that you can do it nogreater good than to join it now, or inflict upon it any greater harmthan to wilfully withdraw yourself from the position in which God hasplaced you."

"And I," said another voice, that of the Countess de Mirac, who up tothis time had held herself in the background, but who now cameforward and took her place with the rest, "I, who have borne the nameof Blake, and who am still the proudest of them all at heart, I, theCountess de Mirac, cousin to your husband there, repeat what thisgood woman has said, and in holding out my hand to you, ask you tomake my cousin happy and his family contented by assuming thatposition in his household which the law as well as his love accordsyou."

The girl looked at the daintily gloved hand held out to her, coloredfaintly, and put her own within it.

"I thank you for your goodness," said she, surveying with half-sad,half-admiring glances, the somewhat pale face of the beautifulbrunette.

"And you will yield to our united requests?" She cast her eye down atthe spot where her father and brother had cowered in their shackles,and shook her head. "I dare not," said she.

Immediatey Mrs. Daniels, whose emotion had been increasing everymoment since she last spoke, plunged her hand into her bosom and drewout a folded paper.

"Mrs. Blake," said she, "if you could be convinced that what I havetold you was true, and that you would be irretrievably injuring yourhusband and his interests, by persisting in that desertion of himwhich your purpose, would you not consent to reconsider yourdetermination, settled as it appears to be?"

"If I could be made to see that, most certainly," returned she in alow voice whose broken accents betrayed at what cost she remainedtrue to her resolve. "But I cannot."

"Perhaps the sight of this paper will help you," said she. And turningto Mr. Blake she exclaimed, "Your pardon for what I am called upon todo. A duty has been laid upon me which I cannot avoid, hard as it isfor an old servant to perform. This paper--but it is no more than justthat you, sir, should see and read it first." And with a hand thatquivered with fear or some equally strong emotion, she put it in hisclasp.

The exclamation that rewarded the act made us all start forward. "Myfather's handwriting!" were his words.

"Executed under my eye," observed Mrs. Daniels.

His glance ran rapidly down the sheet and rested upon the finalsignature.

"Why has this been kept from me?" demanded he, turning upon Mrs.Daniels with sternness.

"Your father so willed it," was her reply. "'For a year' was hiscommand, 'you shall keep this my last will and testament which I giveinto your care with my dying hands, a secret from the world. At theexpiration of that time mark if my son's wife sits at the head of herhusband's table; if she does and is happy, suppress this bydeliberately giving it to the flames, but if from any reason otherthan death, she is not seen there, carry it at once to my son, andbid him as he honors my memory, to see that my wishes as thereexpressed are at once carried out.'"

The paper in Mr. Blake's hand fluttered.

"You are aware what those wishes are?" said he.

"I steadied his hand while he wrote," was her sad and earnest reply.

Mr. Blake turned with a look of inexpressible deference to his wife.

"Madame," said he "when I urged you with such warmth to join your fateto mine and honor my house by presiding over it, I thought I wasinviting you to share the advantages of wealth as well as the love ofa lonely man's heart. This paper undeceives me. Luttra, thedaughter-in-law of Abner Blake, not Holman, his son, is the one whoby the inheritance of his millions has the right to command in thispresence."

With a cry she took from him the will whose purport was thus brieflymade known. "O, how could he, how could he?" exclaimed she, runningher eye down the sheet, and then crushing it spasmodically to herbreast. "Did he not realize that he could do me no greater wrong?"Then in one yielding up of her whole womanhood to the mighty burst ofpassion that had been flooding the defenses of her heart for so long,she exclaimed in a voice the mingled rapture and determination ofwhich rings in my ears even now, "And is it a thing like this withits suggestions of mercenary interest that shall bridge the gulf thatseparates you and me? Shall the giving or the gaining of a fortunemake necessary the unital of lives over which holier influences havebeamed and loftier hopes shone? No, no; by the smile with which yourdying father took me to his breast, love alone, with the hope andconfidence it gives, shall be the bond to draw us together and makeof the two separate planes on which we stand, a common ground where wecan meet and be happy."

And with one supreme gesture she tore into pieces the will which sheheld, and sank all aglow with woman's divinest joy into the arms heldout to receive her.

* * * * * *

I was present at the wedding-reception given them by the Countess DeMirac in her elegant apartments at the Windsor. I never saw a happierbride, nor a husband in whose eyes burned a deeper contentment. Toall questions as to who this extraordinary woman could be, where shewas found, and in what place and at what time she was married, theCountess had apt replies whose art of hushing curiosity withoutabsolutely satisfying it, was one of the tokens she yet preserved, ofher short sway as grand lady, in the gayest and most hollow city ofthe world.

As I prepared to leave a scene perhaps the most gratifying in manyrespects that I had ever witnessed, I felt a slight touch on my arm.It came from Mrs. Blake who with her husband had crossed the room tobid me farewell.

"Will you allow me to thank you," said she, "for the risk you ran forme one day and of which I have just heard. It was an act that meritsthe gratitude of years, and as such shall be always remembered by me.If the old French artist with the racking cough ever desires a favorat my hands, let him feel free to ask it. The interest I experiencedin him in the days of my trouble, will suffer no abatement in these ofmy joy and prosperity." And with a look that was more than words, shegave me a flower from the bouquet she held in her hand, and smilinglywithdrew.